Howard Dean, wild card

Being part of the Washington establishment was never a priority for Howard Dean, and he is right back where he's most comfortable — being pugnacious and speaking his mind. That whole chairman of the DNC thing never felt like a really good fit for him — does anyone remember the firebrand from the 2000 campaign?

Bad boy Mark Murray of the NBC News political team considers and then largely dismisses the idea that Dean is proving a problem to President Obama and the Democratic Party now as payback for getting frozen out of the new administration:

Remember that when Tim Kaine was tapped to be the new DNC chairman, Dean wasn't at the Obama-Kaine press conference announcing the move. Instead, he was in American Samoa, but his allies maintained he would have canceled that trip had he been given a heads up about the press conference.

What's more, Dean never got a plum position in the Obama administration. Possibly adding insult to injury, few DNC aides who worked for Dean initially got top jobs in the Obama administration.

It all raised this question in Washington: Why did Obama opponents like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Joe Lieberman receive better treatment from Team Obama than Dean received?

And it now raises this question: Had Dean been treated better would he — like other Senate progressives right now — be urging liberals to accept the half a loaf on health care.